“I think of the [teaching] cases on a regular basis—remembering what others have done, relating that to the options available to me, and trying to use their lessons to inform my own decisions.”

– Dan Schwarz, Nyaya Health, Nepal

 

GHD case studies are available at no cost on Harvard Business Publishing

Access the GHD Cases  |  Q & A  |  Press Release

The Global Health Delivery Project Case Collection on Harvard Business Publishing boasts 25 teaching case studies in global health delivery. The cases include all the information protagonists had available to them at the time—including data, understanding of relationships, and politics. Putting readers in the shoes of decision-makers, the cases simulate real-life experiences and push readers to first identify the problems, then analyze them and think about how to manage the challenges of health programs in a given context. Every case study includes supplemental materials in the form of exhibits and appendices, and accompanying teaching notes offer instructors suggestions for stimulating and guiding classroom discussions.

To our knowledge, this set of cases is the largest and most current body of work of this kind.

The cases are all unique, with distinct lessons.

• Countries: Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Pakistan, Peru, South Africa, Swaziland, Thailand, Uganda, and Zambia.
• Issues: the development of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) treatment protocols and programs; efforts of a community-based organization to improve voluntary HIV/AIDS counseling and testing; the scale up of one of the first HIV/AIDS nongovernmental organizations in Africa; decisions about how to treat malnutrition; policy development for tobacco control; and polio and measles vaccination campaigns.
• Themes: the principles of global health strategy and management; the complexities surrounding implementation, expansion, and sustainability; the role of leadership; the tension between public health and medicine; the role of context in global health delivery; the potential that lies in monitoring and evaluation.

Harvard University Professors Paul E. Farmer and Michael Porter and Dr. Jim Y. Kim, now President of the World Bank, set this effort in motion to help systemize the study of global health delivery and to rapidly disseminate knowledge to practitioners. The cases have been taught in Rwanda and at Harvard Schools of Business, Medicine and Public Health and MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

Multiple sources provided case development support, including: The Pershing Square Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard Medical School, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Harvard Business Publishing supports the online case publication.

For more, please contact cases[at]ghdonline.org.